Particle Debris (wk. ending 1/7) Illusions and Delusions

Can newspapers hang on to their old business model? Will the iPad help or hurt that process? Does the iPad contain the necessary functionality for newspapers and magazines to operate the way they need to? All these questions and more are discussed by Bradford Cross. He may not have all the answers, but he asks some pretty good questions in: “Why the iPad is Destroying the Future of Journalism.”

Can this save the newspapers — or undo them?

Related to all this is the need for publishers to have a direct relationship with subscribers and the desire by Apple to keep certain customer information private. Google appears to be trying to woo some publishers, like Time Warner and Condé Nast with the idea that Android will give them everything the publishers want. It’s not all sorted out yet, but here’s some background by the Wall Street Journal — subscription may be required — “Google Digital Newsstand Aims to Muscle In on Apple.”

If a company whose website you visit, comes back at you and starts to sniff the history of where you’ve been on the Internet, is that a violation of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act? A New York resident and his attorney think so and have filed suit against McDonalds, CBS, Mazda and Microsoft. According to Wendy Davis, “History-sniffing technology exploits a vulnerability in browsers to discover the Web sites users previously visited. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego recently brought the technique to light when they published a paper explaining the technique and naming 46 Web sites where history-sniffing technology was being deployed.” There’s much more in the Online Media Daily article.

Not to worry, it’s only a Website peeking inside your Mac

Who better to review Google TV than a TV expert, Steve Smith, so here’s a review at VidBlog that digs into some of its problems. It’s just the first part, so you’ll want to come back and find the follow-up articles. “The Google-ification of My TV.”

You are either on the rise in the mobile electronics business, or you’re in decline. Stopping the decline is a lot harder than companies would like it to be, and, often, nothing they can do will stop the fall. To see that trend in smartphone market share, GigaOm provided this chart. (Click to enlarge the chart.) “Apple Holds Smartphone Lead, But Android Is Gaining.” Note that this is smartphone market share, not Android OS vs iOS market share. I can’t wait to see what this chart looks like in 12 months.

This next item is current, but I just found it this week. Have you ever had that WTF feeling when Microsoft releases a product? You’re dumbfounded, especially when you compare the product design and release process to Apple’s. Here’s an interesting explanation that could also apply to Google: “The Redmond Reality Distortion Field.” Really. These engineers need to get out more.

“How sticky is Android?” That’s the question Horace Dedlu asks, and the upshot is that one has to question the proposition that once a customer selects a product, they’ll stay with it forever. That’s the stickiness factor. This article explores that issue with a little bit of math — but that’s good! The author’s conclusion: “It’s not a clear cut case in my mind that Android benefits from these as much as iOS does. If that’s the case, users are more likely to be moving on a one-way street between these two: from Android to iOS and not vice versa.” The (rumored) introduction of the Verizon iPhone will test that assumption. Meanwhile, see if you agree.

What were the major tech trends at CES 2011? Here’s CEPro’s slide show that summarizes what was big this year. Even so, that doesn’t mean that customers are of the same mind. For example, at Christmas, 3D HDTVs left customers yawning, and they headed straight to Best Buy and Apple to buy Kindles and iPads instead.

We know that Google has been telling tablet makers to hold off on Android 2.x as the preferred OS, but many ignored Google in their rush to compete with Apple. However, Android 3.0, code named Honeycomb, is designed for tablets. Here’s a sneak peek at Honeycomb. Will it carve a piece out of the iPad? We shall see.

Now here’s an easy question: Can most users replace their desktop or notebook computer with a smartphone connected to a keyboard and a large display? It sounds foolish, but Motorola is going to see what sticks to the wall with its new Atrix 4G smart phone. Reports are that the large screen performance with animations is jerky, and the Linux side of the dual Linux-Android system can only run Firefox. Here’s a photo of Moto’s vision for the Atrix. It might work for a few, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on Moto’s vision.

Finally, If you’ve seen those T-Mobile myTouch ads on TV that take shots at AT&T and Apple…

… you may be interested in these four photos taken at, I believe, CES of “Miss T-Mobile.” They’re provided here as strictly technical commentary on the nature of the T-Mobile ads which use the same technique against Apple and AT&T as the Apple “Get a Mac” ads used against Microsoft.

I am delighted to see the Plaintiff’s Bar using the federal Wiretapping statute, 18 U.S.C. ? 2511 et seq., and the Anti-Fraud And Relate Activity statute, 18 U.S.C. ? 1030, to prosecute civil complaints against the persons who, under those statutes, are unlawfully tracking users Internet browsing; unlawfully planting software that tracks and monitors users’ Internet browsing; and who are unlawfully intercepting users’ Internet communications. Though Congress, especially the recently elected Republican House, will restrain the FTC and the FCC from protecting consumers from such unlawful monitoring and surveillance, the Plaintiff’s Bar, if only for profit, will effectively use the statutes cited, supra, to deter such criminal monitoring and surveillance by means of ruinous damage awards.

I encourage everyone who suspects that his Internet activity is being monitored without his permission to seek legal counsel to investigate the matter, and, if such illicit monitoring has occurred, sue those responsible whenever such a suit will be worth its costs.

Law that Congress enacted to punish one group of criminals, those who use malware to steal valuable information and/or money, is capturing another set of criminals, who use essentially the same means to steal our personal information and knowledge about our habits and use of the Internet. This is a proper and just use of the law.

Look for these scoundrels to run to Congress in an effort to get the statutes, supra, amended so that their activities will in the future be legal.

And John, the version of 18 U.S.C.? 1030 that you site to is outdated, as Congress has amended the Statue several times since 1996. See http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00001030——000-.html

And I guess T-Mobile’s ads tell us that T-Mobile is not getting the iPhone and is a bit miffed about that. However, I hope that T-Mobile didn’t spend a lot on its ads, as they will be obsolete no later than February of this year, when it is expected that Apple will announce its iPhone for Verizon, and may be obsolete, according to the latest rumors, as soon as this Tuesday, 1/11/11, when Verizon has scheduled some major announcement, which many think will be the announcement of the iPhone coming to Verizon. See http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/28142/

T-Mo is just proud of their phone, their network, and their girl. They’re not jealous at all. They were the first US adopter of Android phones (G1) and have been eager to sell Google experience phones from the beginning.

Nemo, I would trust browser vendors, including Apple, to mitigate privacy problems stemmed from multi-site data matching and arrive at a just solution much more than I’d trust plaintiff’s attorneys. The proprietary browser technology providers, like Adobe, would probably be more effective than the so-called standards-based providers, as they have more flexibility to deal with the issue.

You don’t need a lot of difficult to come by information to reliably match to an individual. I’m not sure that a profile that crosses numerous company data sets is any more worrisome than a profile compiled by a vertically integrated retailer, such as Apple or Amazon. In the case of the former, there is probably more chance for misinformation which would add a certain amount of confusion to the data sets and therefore increase the practical privacy of individuals.